...I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible... To say that we don’t know that it imploded, that it was an implosion and a demolition, is beyond ignorant. Look at the films, get a physics expert here [on the show] from Yale, from Harvard, pick the school—[the collapse] defies reason.

Fortunately, Popular Mechanics has offered a scathing response to Rosie (hat tip: LGF). Using scientific data, engineering reports, analysis, and research, it has eradicated O'Donnell's sick meanderings. Read the whole thing; I've created an illustrated summary of the key facts.

"Initial reports from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) misunderstood the amount of damage the 47-floor WTC7 sustained from the debris of the falling North Tower—because in early photographs, WTC7 was obscured by smoke and debris."

"...Towers 1 and 7 were approximately 300 ft. apart, [a] small [distance] for structures that large. After further studies, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) told PM that debris from the 110-floor North Tower hit WTC7 with the force of a volcanic eruption. Nearly a quarter of the building was carved away over the bottom 10 stories on its south face, and significant damage was visible up to the 18th floor..."

"The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center weren’t knocked down by planes—they both stood for more than a half-hour after the impacts. But the crashes destroyed support columns and ignited infernos that ultimately weakened—not melted—the steel structures until the towers could no longer support their own weights... Ms. O’Donnell fundamentally misstates the case with her use of the word “melting”: Evidence currently points to WTC7 also collapsing because fires weakened its ravaged steel structure."

"Tower 7 housed the city’s emergency command center, so there were a number of fuel tanks located throughout the building—including two 6000-gal. tanks in the basement that fed some generators in the building by pressurized lines.. Steel melts at about 2,750 degrees Fahrenheit—but it loses strength at temperatures as low as 400 F. When temperatures break 1000 degrees F, steel loses nearly 50 percent of its strength. It is unknown what temperatures were reached inside WTC7, but fires in the building raged for seven hours before the collapse."

"Demolition experts tell PM that wiring a building the size of WTC7 for clandestine demolition would present insurmountable logistical challenges... there’s a clear-cut engineering explanation for why the building fell the way it did. Trusses on the fifth and seventh floors of the building were designed to transfer loads from one set of columns to another; with the south face heavily damaged... The entire building fell in on itself as the slumping east side dragged down the west side in a diagonal pattern. Still, damage to the Verizon Building... directly west of WTC7, and to Fiterman Hall... directly north, show that it was hardly an orderly collapse."

"NIST is currently preparing its final report on the collapse of WTC7, which is expected to be released this spring. In order to address concerns of conspiracy theorists, the organization added “Hypothetical Blast Analysis” to its research, according to a December 2006 progress report. The report also points out that 'NIST has found no evidence of a blast or controlled demolition.'"

* * *

In other words, there's no credible evidence that the U.S. Government -- which has proven itself incapable of fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax or illegal immigration -- orchestrated a conspiracy of epic proportions. There's a word for folks who believe in this stuff, but I'm not allowed to say it in mixed company.

And consider the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is offered a forum on a major network to excrete these despicable concepts. And that such a venue provides these outrageous blatherings with a tenuous currency.

Rosie's vile secretions need to be excised from The View. ABC management should terminate her contract -- with extreme prejudice -- so that she can return to life as a magazine publisher.

Friday, March 30, 2007

The Worst of Rosie O'Donnell, and that's saying something

Rosie O'Donnell represents a wonderful learning opportunity for children: shrill, stupid and wrong is no way to go through life.

Thanks to Lorie Byrd and the folks over at Newsbusters (hat tip: Larwyn), we've assembled a Rosie Hall of Shame. When put into the context of The View, it's no wonder ABC's rankings are sinking faster than Michael Moore's doughnut inventory.

• "And just one second, radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America."

• Claiming the U.S. Government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks: "...But I do believe the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics for the World Trade Center Tower Seven, building seven, which collapsed in on itself, it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved, World Trade Center Seven... Seven, miraculously, for the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible..."

• On 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: "Because you don't think terrorists, you don't think terrorists- you think that robs them of their humanity. That name "terrorist" makes them not human any more? ... But I just think, this man for whatever he did or didn't do, he is not the be all, end all of terrorism in America."

• On the British sailors held hostage by Iran: "But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say: Gulf of Tonkin, Google it. Okay."… "In a no bid contract for 5 years Halliburton -- wait a second -- 16 billion dollars. You want to know why we would go into Iran? For the money. That's why we would do it."

• "Nearly everyone in this administration is under indictment or suspicion. Nearly every person. From Karl Rove to Rumsfeld to Gonzalez. What do you have to do to be impeached in this country?"

• On the U.S. Attorney firings: "Okay, Republican officials who supposedly called these judges that were fired and said, are you going to prosecute this Democratic, and they said, I can't talk about that because I'm actually a judge, and it's illegal. And they said "click," and they got fired."…That's mob tactics. That's Tony Soprano. We're going to lean on people. That's what the president's doing. That's scary.”

How did someone this ignorant land a co-host role on a mainstream morning news show? The answer is as much an indictment of the mainstream media as it is a testament to ABC's management abilities.

...As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein. As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp...

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Potential Gaffe o' the Week

The Broward-Palm Beach News Times reports that Hollywood, Florida will see an aerial marshmallow drop of epic proportions. On Saturday, children of all ages will revel as 30,000 marshmallows are dropped from a speeding aircraft into a park.

What could possibly go wrong with that?

My guess is that the aircraft will hit an altitude sufficient to freeze said marshmallows prior to dropping them. The sugary treats will transform themselves from squishy, delicious concoctions into rock-hard engines of destruction. They'll be fully capable of leveling the park and laying waste to swarms of kids.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

US Tests 15-Ton Bunker Buster

In a tunnel under the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the U.S. military this month conducted the first test detonation of a massive bomb designed to crack hardened bunkers... At the helm of the $30 million project to develop what the Defense Department calls the Massive Ordnance Penetrator is the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a Pentagon branch devoted to countering threats from weapons of mass destruction.

The 30,000-pound bomb could be deployed against the type of underground facilities in which Iran is engaged in uranium-enrichment work in defiance of tightening U.N. sanctions...

Several years ago, I addressed the issue of war in an open letter to our President. Having not received a response -- and also having assumed a thought-leadership position in the Democratic Party -- I thought it was "past time at Ridgemont High" to revisit this outrageous conflict.

Sure, we could blame Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, or an incompetent Congress. After all, their diabolical evil knows no bounds. One only need recall that Cheney shot Condi in the tush during a recent so-called "hunting" trip, or was that just a cover story for a love affair that could result in a true spawn of Satan?

But I digress. America's evil and malicious military power should be in the hands of people like you and me. Instead, it rests in the hands of a so-called "commander-in-chief". What gives George W. Bush these ridiculous rights? Just one small piece of paper called a "constitution".

And since Bush has laid waste to said "constitution", I ask how can he be a real commander-in-chief? After the Dixie Chicks mysteriously disappeared, and Bill Maher was executed by a firing squad, and Keith Olbermann's tongue cut out, and American Bandstand canceled, what more needs to be said?

Bush has broken our country and our hearts. Wherefore art thou, Dick Clark? The blood is on your hands, oh evil administration, since you allowed September 11, 2001 to happen.

You and your paid-off, monkey-boy pundits, those who soil themselves at the mere mention of Anna Nicole Smith or Natalie Holoway, you can take that noise and insert it into your septum. That is, if a septum is what I think it is.

And Mister Bush: why are your daughters not serving in Iraq right now? Other than the fact that we have a volunteer military, of course. Do they not support your policy? Or do they have minds of their own? Chickenhawks! They are chickenhawks! The Bush daughters are **squawk** chicken hawks!

So Iran wants a nuclear weapon? We have one! Why not them? After all, we're just as corrupt as they are! We are morally equivalent! They're just posturing when they say that they will eradicate the U.S., the U.K., and Israel. It's a simple joke, lost in translation, not unlike an Iranian Henny Youngman who speaks in Urdu, thus the confused punchlines.

We are told not to engage in the "politics of attack!" To "keep away from the negative!" Well, Mr. Bush, when speaking of your administration, that would leave us fuming... having even more temper tantrums than usual! We stomp our feet and wail... but you ignore us! Well, you do so at your own administration's peril.

In conclusion, I address my remaining remarks to the choir or at least the chorus: it is time, yes time, for impeachment. I do not know the legal basis for such an act, I just know it sounds good. It is a powerful word. Scary.

Unfortunately, even a so-called victory for fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives brings us no closer to retreat. We must pull out immediately from all wars: in Iraq and elsewhere. War is unjust and mean. By talking to our enemies, even irrational, fascist dictators with delusions of messianic grandeur we are certain to advance the cause of peace, love, and understanding.

There are presidential candidates who understand this. We do have candidates of conscience. As things stand today, I will be voting for Dennis Kucinich, who has fought this war from the beginning. You might say Kucinich can't win and you'd be right. But I don't give a crap. It demonstrates that I have a firm grasp on reality as evidenced by this entire speech.

Thank you for your attention and please help make "President Kucinich" a reality in 2008. It's our choice, dammit! Why can't you people understand this?? Dammit all to hell and back! You people are ridiculous! Hand me that bottle of Jack, will you?